Yeah, if Sea 91.9 did go off-air, we would need to record Hit91.9 Warwick (including an ad break from it where possible) ASAP, because Sea FM would work rapidly to get their signals back on-air. That’s what I’ll say, don’t delay it, get onto it, and record whatever you can of Hit91.9 Warwick, when the opportunity comes.
Reception would be similar to PNN from Warwick on 96.3 based on the ACMA listing.
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I get a faint signal of that here. Not as good as 96.7 Toowoomba though
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I can confirm RDS on ABCFM Canberra but the injection level is astoundingly low. Struggles to decode in Bungendore.
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Thanks 
thought it would still be low.
Are they carrying song/artist info in the RT field per the fault report above?
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Yep - similar here - low levels.
This morning: GEM Inverell. ABC’s Middle Brother, Coffs commercials.
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I have noticed this too.
The overseas models look worth saving for, there are some very intricate, higher gain designs. I could never outdo Rob at Buderim and his quality SDR set up however 
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Postage would cost a fair bit though. 8 elements are long and even when pre assembled, bulky.
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Yeah both on the same site and same antenna, tho News Radio is slightly less power then Hit
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What do you mean by “slightly less” when they are both rated at 2kw ERP?
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Hit is set to 800w, News Radio is 750w
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PNN Warwick is just receivable at my location. Toowoomba is stronger but is usually is wiped out by ABC FM from Mt Dowe.
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Now that I have four (three-element) yagis for the four TEF devices, I’m trying to decide on the best direction to point them in to get the most DX catches. To try to ascertain that, I’ve mapped all transmitters >5 kW that aren’t co-channeled with local/semi-local stations and have come up with the following options:
- Northeast (dark purple): Gosford, Newcastle, North Coast, SEQ
- Northwest (light purple): Tamworth, Upper Naomi, FNQ (Cairns/Townsville)
- West (green): Bathurst, Orange, Parkes
- Southwest (pink): Goulburn, Canberra, Albury/Wodogna, Melbourne/Geelong
- South (brown): Nowra, Batemans Bay
- East (yellow): New Zealand
The transmitter groupings that don’t fall within ±10° of one of the six options, I’ve put in black and white. The dashed grey line is my current compromise setup for my single yagi to try to catch both the west and north/northeast stations.
So since I’ll only have 4 TEFs/yagis and 6 options, I’ll have to compromise and am looking to get people’s thoughts on what the best compromises would be. My questions/thoughts so far:
- Are the South Coast and Goulburn/Canberra transmitters close enough together (in terms of heading) to just use one yagi and aim it in-between the two? (towards around Cooma) They’re about 25° apart.
- Similar question for the northeast and northwest options, but with a bigger difference – about 45° apart. How much loss would I get trying to cover the two options with one yagi and aiming somewhere in the middle like Armidale.
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Not a complete answer for all four, but if it helps:
120° covers New Zealand, you definitely want one point that way during the warm months.
215° should cover both Tasmania and Melbourne/NE Victoria.
335° to cover FNQ and Papua New Guinea.
45° I’d say is too far apart.
25° you can go in between no worries.
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Wow! Awesome.
The 3 element yagi’s will have a wide -3dB beamwidth 20 degrees either side (40 degrees total) so won’t matter too much & that beamwidth will likely be wider at the lower frequencies too.
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Thanks for those suggestions.
What’s the best way to point for NZ? Towards Auckland (105°), Wellington (118°), Christchurch (126°) or Queenstown/Dunedin (135°)? My view is blocked by tall buildings from about 110° to 152°, unfortunately (although I remember getting TVNZ analogue on my TV back in the day - and this was with the antenna pointing with a ~90° offset to NZ).
215° sounds like a good option for South Coast, Goulburn, Canberra + VIC/TAS then.
I’ve got FNQ from my home before. Never managed PNG though – how common is PNG from Sydney?
For me: Sunshine Coast 14°, Brisbane 15°, GC 20°, Coffs 26°, Newcastle/Taree 29°, Port Macquarie 32°, so I guess I should be able to get everything coastal up to SEQ with one aerial, but not FNQ/PNG.
Main dilemma now is whether to have one for Orange/Bathurst/Parkes vs one for PNG/FNQ (Townsville/Cairns is about 345° for me).
Is anything likely to come in from further west than Parkes? I got Spencer Gulf one time, but that’s more southwest.
Edit: Actually, I think the headless TEF has a switchable aerial input – maybe I should just buy a 5th yagi 
.
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Yes you’ll want to decide which 2 antennas to use for the headless unit. You don’t have to run 2, but I like the idea of it. I could easily run 2 webservers but I prefer an antenna switch comparing signals, especially being a vertical vs horizontal.
Honestly with the beamwidth of a 3-element and what ozbark has mentioned, the middle of NZ, say, Wellington, would suffice with being able to capture all of both the north and south islands. That’d be up to roughly ~15 degrees either side.
As for PNG, I’m not sure if you’d have any luck reaching that distance. I dare say it would be extremely rare if it all possible, but would be interesting to know if anyone ever has received that far from Sydney.
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PNG has been received in Sydney once or twice. Port Moresby is in that awkward ‘doughnut’ region between Es and 2Es. Once you get to about the Northern Rivers of NSW, Port Moresby is within single hop range. @tamago_otoko has also had 96.3 PNG over the top of Rebel FM from near Goondiwindi.
We had 2Es reception of 95.0 MHz New Ireland, PNG from near Cooma (this is further north in PNG, hence a better 2Es distance). I had a tentative logging of this one too. Ironically, Tasmania is probably in the best position for 2Es to Port Moresby.
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With the launch of my new TEF web server and set up of the yagi antenna, I have been able to pull in some better catches. This morning all Riverland / Loxton FMs were receivable, even the low powered TAB Radio. I even had Adelaide triple J briefly, although it quickly faded out as fast as it came in.
Some Horsham FMs were also receivable, abiet just above the noise floor. The only way I could tell it was them, was checking the livemap data and cross referencing.
No Swan Hill aside from the two usual ABC stations (local radio and Classic FM).
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Strong Mt Dowe signals in SEQ today including commercials. Also Inverell and Coffs stations. Middle Brother at low levels.
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